Various types of digital media documents, such as images, audio recordings, and videos, often include metadata that includes textual descriptions of the digital media document. This metadata may include information such as a timestamp, as well as tags and/or narrative descriptions of the content of the associated digital media document. These metadata may be used when performing text based searches in order to identify media documents that are relevant to the search query. The metadata may also be used to categorize or classify the digital media documents.
As one example, the metadata associated with a digital photo may include technical information such as the dimensions of the image (in pixels) and the color depth of the image, as well as metadata describing the content of the photo. The metadata associated with a photograph of a hiker in a forest may include textual descriptions of the content of the photograph, such as a “woods,” “forest,” “trees,” “plants,” “green,” “shadow,” “flower,” “hike,” “hiker,” “hiking,” etc.
Three-dimensional (3D) models are another form of digital media document, and are prevalently used in contexts such as advertising, quality control, video games, virtual reality, and augmented reality applications. In the past, 3D models were generated manually through the use of, for example, computer aided design (CAD) tools. Creating these models is, generally, a labor intensive task, especially when creating detailed models. More recently, depth cameras and 3D scanners have provided an alternative approach, in which detailed 3D models can be created through the digital capture of the shapes of real, physical objects.
The three-dimensional models generated using CAD tools, depth cameras, and 3D scanners may also benefit from metadata tagging. For example, 3D models may be used in product listings on electronic commerce websites, and the metadata associated with the 3D models may be used to generate or populate the information in the associated product listings. For example, a 3D model of a vehicle may include metadata information such as the make and model of the car, the interior and exterior color, condition (e.g., presence of dents or damage), and the like. These metadata can be added to the information in the product listing, such that a shopper can search for a particular type of car in a particular color.
However, manually generating these metadata for each 3D model can be time consuming, and can cause inconsistent and poorly organized results. For example, a car may be tagged as being “red” whereas the actual name of the shade of red may be “ruby.” Other information about the vehicle may be incorrect, such as the spelling of the name of the particular model.